Fundamental Business Insights
Databases and Business Intelligence are tools needed to gain fundamental business insights. The Structured Query Language allows extracting useful business data from databases. Business Intelligence (BI) tools such Power BI offer interactive visualisations and analyses of business data.
1.1 Data Analytics and Applications
What is Data Analytics?
What would you like to get out of Data Analytics? Data processing, data mining, tools, data structuring, data insights and data storage are typical frst responses. So, we defnitely want to analyse, manipulate, visualise and learn about tools to help us in this endeavour. We do not want to analyse the data for the sake of analysing it; the insights need to be actionable for businesses, organisations or governments. How do we achieve this? The process of discovering knowledge in databases and CRISP-DM helps us with this. Of course, we need to know about databases. There are tools such as Power BI which allow us to transform, analyse and visualise data. So we are “analysing” the data – analysing ranges from formulating a data challenge in words to writing a simple structured query and up to applying mathematical methods to extract knowledge. Of course, the “fun” part is refected in state-of-the-art methods implemented in data mining tools. But in Data Analytics, your mind is set to ensure your fndings are actionable and relevant to the business. For instance, can we: fnd trading opportunities, fgure out the most important products, identify relevant quality aspects and many more so that
the management team can devise actions that beneft the business? This motivates the following defnition:
Data Analytics is the discipline of extracting actionable insights by structuring, processing, analysing and visualising data using methods and software tools.
Where does Data Analytics “sit” in the area of Business Analytics? Often, Data Analytics is mentioned in conjunction with Business Analytics. Data Analytics can be seen as part of Business Analytics. Business Analytics also includes Operational Analytics. It has become fashionable to divide analytics into Descriptive, Predictive, and Prescriptive Analytics. Sometimes these terms are further refned by adding Diagnostic and Cognitive Analytics. What is what?
Descriptive Analytics – as the term suggests – is about describing the data. For instance, to show key performance indicators (KPIs) about the current state of a business, such as the sales volume, the production throughput or the customer satisfaction level. So it focuses on historical data, i.e. it answers the question “What has happened?”.
Predictive Analytics is about learning from the data to derive a model that is able to predict and classify. This can be used for forecasting or evaluating new scenarios. Here are some examples: determining anticipated sales volume, forecasting the demand for products, predictive maintenance, foreseeing the likelihood of a customer churning, direct/targeted marketing, suggesting products for cross-selling, recommending a movie for a customer, credit card fraud detection and credit risk assessment. Predictive Analytics tells us what will happen.
Prescriptive Analytics provides optimal decisions given a challenge. Examples are the optimal production strategy, optimal supply quantities, minimising transportation costs, maximising sales proft and many more. Prescriptive Analytics states what shall happen.
Diagnostic Analytics aims to provide reasons for observed circumstances. It deals with identifying outliers and tries to detect anomalies. It also investigates the correlation of variables. Often, Diagnostic Analytics is seen as part of Descriptive Analytics.
Cognitive Analytics (CA) – in the year 2023 – is still in its infancy. One of the aims is to integrate AI and to be more humanlike. That means Cognitive Analytics may assume that all knowledge is known and available – not just the business data under study, which enables CA to know the likely context of data. The dictionary defnition states that cognitive involves conscious intellectual activity such as thinking, reasoning or remembering. Explainable AI may become part of CA. Some authors state deep learning neural networks as CA. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is often associated with CA. Tools such as Apache Lucene Core (text search engine), GPText (statistical text analysis), SyntaxNet (NN framework for understanding natural language), Parsey McParseface (SyntaxNet for English), NuPIC (cognitive computing platform), OpenCV and ImageJ for visual recognition are associated with CA (Kaur, 2022).
The main focus of Data Analytics was Descriptive and Predictive Analytics but has begun to include Diagnostic and Cognitive Analytics. However, Prescriptive Analytics remains associated with Operational Analytics (aka Operational Research or Management Science).
The next paragraphs give several applications and examples of Data Analytics.
Applications
Organisations are typically divided into the functional units of operations, marketing, fnance and administration. Administration may be further divided into customer services and human resources. These functional units can manifest themselves in departments. All these departments use (or could use) Data Analytics. Applications of Data Analytics for operations are forecasting demand, analysing inventory, machine utilisation, purchase recommendations and others. Examples of marketing utilising Data Analytics for marketing are targeted marketing, cross-selling and discovering shopping habits. Finance applications are proft (revenue, cost) insights, setting prices, credit scoring and fraud detection. Some applications of Data Analytics for administration are customer behaviour, workforce performance and employee turnover and retention. This motivates the benefts and shows the scope of Data Analytics.
The learning outcomes and prominent data mining techniques are mentioned in Section 1.2. This also gives an idea of how solutions are obtained for Data Analytics challenges. Section 1.3 gives an overview of essential software tools useful to data analysts. It also tells us “where to start from” and “where to go to by mentioning prominent data sources, data competitions, conferences, books and journals. Finally, we sketch out the remainder of the “journey” (book).
1.2 Learning Outcomes
The intended learning outcomes are:
• Analyse, evaluate and create databases;
• Visualise and evaluate data using a methodical analytical approach;
• Build customised data analytics solutions;
• Apply knowledge discovery processes to create data insights;
• Compare important data mining algorithms and techniques;
• Apply, analyse and evaluate state-of-the-art methods;
• Assess and propose classifcation and prediction models;
• Synthesis Artifcial Intelligence to gain insights;
• Communicate and demonstrate Data Analytics to the management for decisionmaking.
Typically, businesses and organisations keep data in databases. It is important to know about them in general and to be able to extract relevant data. Therefore, it is necessary to learn how to translate business questions into the structure query language. This enables us to extract and analyse data. Often, the analysis of data continues using Business Intelligence tools and Data Science languages. The corresponding tools integrate several useful methods. For instance, we will learn about trend lines, forecasts and key infuencers. There are well-established guidelines on how to approach Data Analytics projects. In this book, the knowledge discovery process in databases and the cross-industry standard process for data mining are discussed. Classifcations and predictions are key to machine learning. Prediction techniques such as regression trees, random forest and linear regression will be introduced. Examples of classifcation methods covered in this text are logistic regression, classifcation trees and nearest neighbours. State-of-the-art methods include neural networks, self-organising maps and support vector machines. We will introduce the machine learning process to embed the above in an overarching framework. On top of all these essential techniques, we will learn about Artifcial Intelligence and its applications and even show how to create a chess program.
1.3 Tools and Data
We will focus on using the following:
• MySQL for dealing with databases;
• Power BI for gaining data insights;
• R (with RStudio) as a Data Science language for all kinds of Data Analytics challenges.
MySQL is the most prominent open-source database system. Hence, it is used in many industries and serves them as a primary tool for data storage. The affliated Structured Query Language allows us to analyse the data to gain actionable data insights. Here, we are mainly in the diagnostic and descriptive analytics domain. Business Intelligence tools such as Power BI allow us to link to MySQL and visualise and evaluate the data to solve business challenges. Power BI is suitable for presenting Data Analytics insights to a wider audience including management. These insights can be tailored to support decision-making in a business context. In addition to the diagnostic and analytics domain, we are covering the predictive analytics domain. In theory, we could integrate prescriptive and cognitive analytics into this tool using Data Science languages such as R. R allows us to apply, evaluate and compare state-of-the-art data mining algorithms. R covers all analytics domains. We can design, develop and create software, analyses and reports for any purpose.
Data and tutorials
Here is a non-exhaustive list showing several websites, which provide datasets and tutorials relevant to Data Analytics.
• W3schools (w3schools.com/sql) – includes a thorough introduction to SQL with many examples and an interactive environment.
• Kaggle (kaggle.com) – has a huge repository of data and code and hosts competitions for data scientists.
• KDnuggets (kdnuggets.com) – Knowledge Discovery Nuggets (KDnuggets) covers Business Analytics, data mining and Data Science, providing many resources.
• Smartana (smartana.org) – Smart Analytics (Smartana) provides tools, data and tutorials relevant to Business, Operational and Data Analytics. It has an interactive tutorial tailored for this book.
• An Introduction to Statistical Learning (statlearning.com) – The authors provide free comprehensive books and various related videos.
Within the individual chapters, we will provide more references and links to data sources and complementing tutorials.
Structure
This book is structured into four parts. In the frst part, fundamental business insights are obtained by extracting relevant data from databases and visualising it with business intelligence tools. The second part provides the background to take data analyses to the next level. It introduces coding to develop customised Data Analytics tools. Furthermore, frameworks are discussed to guide through the process of Data Analytics projects. This includes a detailed machine learning roadmap, which can be used when coding in the data science language R. The third part is all about the details of learning. Here, we consider supervised and unsupervised learning. Predictions and classifcation models are learned and applied to various business challenges. Finally, artifcial intelligence is introduced, which provides a new dimension to Data Analytics. Here, we look at neural networks to complement the learning aspects. We even offer problem-solving approaches such as genetic algorithms, which can be used for all kinds of challenges.
2.1 Introduction
2.1.1 Overview
This chapter introduces databases and the Structured Query Language (SQL). Most of today’s data is stored in databases within tables. In order to gain knowledge and make valuable business decisions, it is necessary to extract information effciently. This is achieved using the Structured Query Language. Good relational databases avoid repetitive data using standard normalisation approaches: for instance, by splitting raw data into multiple tables. These tables (=entities) are linked (=related) using business rules. Structured queries make use of entity relationships to obtain data. This is one of the fundamental concepts of data mining of structured data.
We work towards the following learning outcomes:
• Being able to analyse data using a methodical analytical approach;
• Having familiarity with important data mining techniques.
Section 2.2 mentions popular database systems and businesses using them. The setup and practicalities of database systems are also explained in this section. Section 2.3
shows how to create tables using SQL. Section 2.4. shows how to write SQL queries and provide views on tables. Entity relationships between tables are discussed in Section 2.5.
2.1.2 Motivation and Managers
Here, we will discuss databases and their relevance to the management level. Typically, data analysts report to managers. Hence, this section may help data analysts communicate insights to their managers. It may also help managers better understand data analysts. Further, this section motivates the importance of database systems.
Can Managers Use SQL for Decision Making?
My guess is that 95% of managers do not have the “luxury” of using SQL because of the time required to get to know the database. On one hand, we are stating that managers and businesses should make data-driven decisions. On the other hand, most managers and businesses may lack the time or capability to do this within databases. In most situations, managers will not be able to set aside the time to familiarise themselves with the available and needed raw data. So, they rely on analysts to prepare the data in graphs and the analysts’ suggestions. That means analysts are preparing and visualising data and guiding the decisions on behalf of managers. However, the gap is closing between analysts and managers due to Business Intelligence tools. In summary, I would recommend that a manager of a large or medium-size company not use SQL for decision making directly, but rather indirectly, via analysts and Business Intelligence (BI) reports.
How Does SQL Help in Preparing Decisions?
Descriptive Analytics can be achieved with databases. That means the earlier examples concerning key performance indicators (KPIs) of the current state of a business, such as sales volume, production throughput and the customer satisfaction level, can be answered by querying the database using SQL. A manager does not have to specify details, but once the analyst is querying the data, he needs to add precision to the manager’s statement. For instance, if the manager asks, “What is the sales volume?” the analyst will immediately ask, “Why do you want to know?” Because, without further specifcation, millions of sales records over time will be needed to provide the answer. However, most likely the reasons for the sales volume request are:
• To see which products have done better in the last quarter (month, week);
• To get an idea of whether the demand is rising or falling;
• To trigger actions such as market analysis, marketing campaign, etc.;
• To restock the inventory;
• To start/stop/plan production;
• To invest and employ people.
Hence, the SQL statements can extract and prepare relevant business data, which can be used for decision making (often after visualisation).
Why Do I need to Know about Databases?
Why are databases important for businesses?
We are living in an age in which we drown in data and starve for knowledge. The data volume puts managers and analysts in the position of doing data-driven decision making (DDDM), which means making organisational decisions based on actual data, rather than intuition or observations. As a manager, it is important to know the extent to which data availability can help the decision-making process. As an analyst, the data’s limitations for providing business insights are important to acknowledge.
The huge amount of data stems from corporations’ dependency on it for their daily business activities. Hence, database systems were established to assist with this endeavour. These activities are often placed in one of four categories: (1) operations, (2) marketing (sales), (3) fnance and (4) human resources. These are supported by information systems accessing operations data, customer (sales, marketing) data, fnancial data and human resource data.
One needs to be careful that data is recorded correctly. “Bad” data lead to wrong decisions. Here, “bad” can mean incorrect, faulty, insuffcient, wrong or non-existent. A phrase commonly used by analysts is “Rubbish in, rubbish out”.
Unbelievably, cleaning and organising data can take up to 80% of the time of an analyst. Surveys from Kaggle and Figure Eight (Crowd-fower) give a more detailed breakdown – varying from year to year and becoming less, but still in the range of 25%. The point is that if data is prepared well already, the time for analyses can be reduced signifcantly. This, in turn, means managers’ data-driven decision making can be accelerated by improving data quality in the organisation.
If you are a CTO, COO or manager or you are in a management role depending on a strategic unit such as Business Intelligence, then you could state that an organisation can thrive on data by employing the right people. Which roles deal with the databases? Data engineer, data manager, data analyst and data scientist.
Who Needs Databases?
Indirectly, via a frontend, customers may do their shopping online, which generates customer records and transactions. These are saved in databases. Another example is a
purchase manager storing supplier data. Achievements of a sales agent can be recorded in a database, as well as marketing records such as surveys. The fnance department needs a database to record and analyse its accounting information. Operations needs to know the demand for production, which is based on historic data stored in databases. Human resources needs to store employee information and records. In summary, people across the entire business rely on a database (or several databases) in the background. Often, these database users are unaware of the database’s existence because another system (e.g. an ERP system) is in between.
Strategic analyses – are they based on live data or historic data? Should they be? Live is current but may affect daily operations. Hence, I would recommend doing strategic analysis on an offine database (e.g. a snapshot/extract of the live database) using historic data. Business Intelligence tools offer this opportunity but also allow direct queries. We will discuss this further in the Business Intelligence chapter.
Most people use Excel Maps: for instance, HR to manage the employees and operations to do their planning. Should you encourage them to use databases? Advantages of using databases are consistency with regard to a predefned data structure and durability (e.g. when people leave the organisation) and recording the history. Disadvantages of databases are that IT is usually required for creation and adaption. There will be the need for a frontend. Furthermore, the data structure will be predetermined and, hence, will become infexible to small changes. Using different data sources gives you more “fexibility”.
What are the advantages/disadvantages of an SQL database instead? The advantage are well-defned data, ease of query, the fact that changes can be recorded and the independence of “individuals”. The disadvantage is that updating may require interface, which will cost the company additional resources. The decision to switch to a relation database or stay with heterogeneous data sources needs to consider the trade-off between data fexibility and consistency.
Why do managers get inconsistent reports? Sometimes, different departments use different data sources. It can be as simple as an inconsistent date range being used. Even using the same data range, retrospective or delayed data updates can cause inconsistencies, which I observed during my time at Telekom Austria. Let us summarise some issues of not having a database:
• Data silos for each department, such as operations, sales, fnance and others;
• Each department has its own set of data – sharing;
• Heterogeneous data sources – data cannot be linked;
• Excel maps – many different versions, many different people, inconsistency through sharing;
• Data may fall into the wrong “hands” – data security;
• Data gets lost.
Hence, databases may be the answer to resolve these issues.
2.1.3
Database Integration and Cloud Solutions
Does a database “integrate” with other systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and website? With hardly any exception, those systems rely on a database in the background. In fact, most systems, including manufacturing execution system (MES), warehouse management systems (WMS) and transportation management systems (TMS) are based on databases. Let me mention a few popular systems and their databases. JD Edwards (ERP) uses the Oracle database. Enterprise resource planning integrates business activities such as marketing, operations, human resources and fnance into a single system (software) with a common database. JD Edwards was bought by People Soft in 2003 for $1.8bn and was then taken over by Oracle in 2005. Microsoft Dynamics (ERP and CRM) is often used in conjunction with the SQL Server but offers a common data service (CDS) “MS Dataverse”.
The CDS can include other databases. On 11 June 2002, Navision (part of MS Dynamics) was acquired by Microsoft for $1.45bn. SAP has its HANA database but allows other databases; again, Oracle is prominent here. SAP is the most classic – historically important – example. The previous examples illustrate that frontend database solutions are extremely valued by organisations. However, they live and breathe because of their databases.
Should a database be inside the company building? If there might be fre or water damage, then an external location is benefcial. It is best to have backup servers in at least two different geographic locations.
Cloud-based databases are becoming more and more “fashionable”. Here are fve prominent ones:
1. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
2. Amazon Relational Database Service
3. Google Cloud SQL
4. IBM Db2 on Cloud
5. Oracle Database
Personally, I like using Digital Ocean for small enterprises which allows the installation and usage of various database systems. It is well suited for small enterprises because it is inexpensive and easy to administer and offers suffcient resources.
2.1.4 Security, Ethics and Law
Often, databases contain confdential information about customers, staff, account holders and suppliers. They also contain vital data about the business or corporation, including fnance, services, marketing and others.
What are the legal responsibilities of a company (corporation etc.) to protect their database? This depends on where the company is situated. We will focus on the UK. In a nutshell, the company has to protect the data (database). The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has seven key principles: lawfulness, fairness and transparency; purpose limitation; data minimisation; accuracy; storage limitation; integrity and confdentiality (security); and accountability. The bare minimum for the GDPR are fles that detail data breach policy (including a log fle), data protection compliance, data subject access requests, password policy and any non-compliance issues.
Your business “must make sure the information is kept secure, accurate and up to date” (https://www.gov.uk/data-protection-your-business).If someone’s personal data is recorded, the business must inform them how the personal information is used and whether the data is shared. Furthermore, each person has the right to see the information that is held about them, request the data deletion and request that the data not be used for certain purposes. A company can appoint data protection offcers (DPOs), who are independent data protection experts, to ensure their data protection obligation. There is detailed information in the UK GDPR guide, hosted by the Information Commissioner’s Offce organisation.
2.2 Systems
2.2.1 Concept
A typical database system consists of a server, service, databases and a client.
The server is a computer, which is usually connected to the inter- or intranet. The server runs a software which handles the access to stored data. Here, the software is called database service, and the stored data are known as databases. Usually, a client connects to the server, which runs the database service to query data. A database is a structured collection of data – often with an underlying relational model. The database service offers a simplifed language to query data, which is known as Structured Query Language (SQL). It also manages access and synchronisation issues for multiple clients. A client allows one user to “communicate” with the server to control one or several databases.
The term database is often used for any component of the database system, and context is used to identify whether it is the server, service, the “actual” database or the client. This will be adapted in this text occasionally.
FIGURE 2.1 Database system.
2.2.2 Database Engines
Some of the most popular commercial database services are Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and IBM’s DB2. These are often used by large companies. Two non-commercial database services are PostgreSQL and MySQL, which are widespread.
Figure 2.2 shows the development of commercial and open-source database services over a period of ten years.
FIGURE 2.2 Commercial versus open-source license database services. Source: Adapted from DB-Engines.
We can see that in 2013, it was more likely for a commercial database to be used. Commercial database services had a ranking score of 65% whilst open-source companies had 35%. The ranking scores were adapted from db-engines.com (DB-Engines Ranking, 2023), where the score defnitions can be found. January 2021 was the turning point, where the ranking score changed in favour of the open-source database services. That means in 2022–2023, it was more likely for a company to use a service with an open-source licence. These fgures also show the top fve commercial and open-source databases. Figure 2.3 is a snapshot from db-engines.com of the top ten database systems. PostgreSQL* is used by numerous famous organisations, such as:
• Uber, Netfix, Instagram, Spotify;
• Twitch, Reddit, IMDb, TripAdvisor;
• Yahoo, Myspace, Skype, Apple;
• OpenStreetMap, Sony Online, Sun;
• The International Space Station.
MySQL has also several prominent organisations behind it, such as Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, X (formerly known as Twitter) and many more.
FIGURE 2.3 DB-engines.com – database systems ranking.
Source: DB-Engines
Both PostgreSQL and MySQL have also been widely adapted by the industry because of their ease of setup. MySQL in particular has a reputation for being useful in conjunction with websites.
NoSQL (not only SQL) database systems such as Neo4J and Mon-goDB are gaining more attention; one prominent user is Google.
We will focus on MySQL and PostgreSQL because of their widespread use.
2.2.3 Setup and Confguration
Figure 2.4 illustrates the usual setup of database systems.
Let us look at the PostgreSQL database system. A server identifed by its IP address or hostname runs an operating system based on Unix (Ubuntu, AIX, Linux) or Windows. The OS runs the PostgreSQL service. A client computer can connect via the internet (or intranet) to the server. In order to achieve this, the server’s and client’s frewalls need to allow communication via port 5432. A port can be imagined as a “door” which allows the data to fow in and out to the registered service. The client runs a program known
FIGURE 2.4 Setup of database systems.
as pgAdmin to connect to the server. Developers, researchers or micro businesses may choose to run the client and server software on one computer. For instance, client A may have a local installation of the database service. Here, the server’s IP address is identifed as 127.0.0.1 and localhost as hostname. In case client A requires multiple PostgreSQL service connections (e.g. remote and local or several remote severs), you can use PuTTY to redirect via multiple receiving ports.
A MySQL system can be set up similarly to the Postgres system. That means you install and start a MySQL service on a server. Next, you need to ensure the frewall allows connections on port 1433. Then install the software MySQL Workbench on the client computer, again ensuring that the frewall allows connections.
Figure 2.5 demonstrates the essential steps for an actual database system setup.
It gives a snapshot of the database server running on a Windows OS. The command prompt window shows the hostname, cp-vms-ts1–01.surrey.ac.uk, and the IP address, 131.227.131.159, displayed by the commands hostname and ipconfig respectively. The services app shows that the MySQL service (MySQL80) is running. In the background, we see the client software MySQL Workbench, including a query ready to create a database called “shared_playground”.
MySQL Service Installation
Here are the steps to install, start and test a MySQL service for the frst time on your computer.
1. Download MySQL server: https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/;
2. Extract zip fle to a folder of your choice [usually C:/mysql];
3. Start » cmd » cd C:/mysql » mysqld – initialize (note password for root or recover it from *.err fle in C:\mysql\data);
FIGURE 2.5 Database system setup in reality.
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There are many features and incidents in Mr. Grady’s life that cannot be properly treated in this hurriedly written and altogether inadequate sketch. His versatility was such that it would be difficult, even in a deliberately written biography, to deal with its manifestations and results as they deserve to be dealt with. At the North, the cry is, who shall take his place as a peacemaker? At the South, who shall take his place as a leader, as an orator, and as a peacemaker? In Atlanta, who shall take his place as all of these, and as a builder-up of our interests, our enterprises, and our industries! Who is to make for us the happy and timely suggestion? Who is to speak the right word at the right time! The loss the country has sustained in Mr. Grady’s death can only be measurably estimated when we examine one by one the manifold relations he bore to the people.
I have spoken of the power of organization that he possessed. There is hardly a public enterprise in Georgia or in Atlanta—begun and completed since 1880—that does not bear witness to his ability, his energy, and his unselfishness. His busy brain and prompt hand were behind the great cotton exposition held in Atlanta in 1881. Late in the spring of 1887, one of the editorial writers of the Constitution remarked that the next fair held in Atlanta should be called the Piedmont Exposition. “That shall be its name,” said Mr. Grady, “and it will be held this fall.” That was the origin of the Piedmont Exposition. Within a month the exposition company had been organized, the land bought, and work on the grounds begun. It seemed to be a hopeless undertaking—there was so much to be done, and so little time to do it in. But Mr, Grady was equal to the emergency. He so infused the town with his own energy and enthusiasm that every citizen came to regard the exposition as a personal matter, and the Constitution hammered away at it with characteristic iteration. There was not a detail of the great show from beginning to end that was not of Mr. Grady’s suggestion. When it seemed to him that he was taking too prominent a part in the management, he would send for other
members of the fair committee, pour his suggestions into their ears, and thus evade the notoriety of introducing them himself and prevent the possible friction that might be caused if he made himself too prominent. He understood human nature perfectly, and knew how to manage men.
The exposition was organized and the grounds made ready in an incredibly short time, and the fair was the most successful in every respect that has ever been held in the South. Its attractions, which were all suggested by Mr. Grady, appealed either to the interest or the curiosity of the people, and the result was something wonderful. It is to be very much doubted whether any one in this country, in time of peace, has seen an assemblage of such vast and overwhelming proportions as that which gathered in Atlanta on the principal day of the fair. Two years later, the Piedmont Exposition was reorganized, and Mr. Grady once more had practical charge of all the details. The result was an exhibition quite as attractive as the first, to which the people responded as promptly as before. The Exposition Company cleared something over $20,000, a result unprecedented in the history of Southern fairs.
In the interval of the two fairs, Mr. Grady organized the Piedmont Chautauqua at a little station on the Georgia Pacific road, twenty miles from Atlanta. Beautiful grounds were laid out and commodious buildings put up. In all this work Mr. Grady took the most profound interest. The intellectual and educational features of such an institution appealed strongly to his tastes and sympathies, and to that active missionary spirit which impelled him to be continually on the alert in behalf of humanity. He expended a good deal of energy on the Chautauqua and on the programme of exercises, but the people did not respond heartily, and the session was not a financial success. And yet there never was a Chautauqua assembly that had a richer and a more popular programme of exercises. The conception was a success intellectually, and it will finally grow into a success in other directions. Mr. Grady, with his usual unselfishness, insisted on bearing the expenses of the lecturers and others, though it crippled him financially to do so. He desired to protect the capitalists who went into the enterprise on his account, and, as is
usual in such cases, the capitalists were perfectly willing to be protected. Mr. Grady was of the opinion that his experience with the Chautauqua business gave him a deeper and a richer knowledge of human nature than he had ever had before.
One morning Mr. Grady saw in a New York newspaper that a gentleman from Texas was in that city making a somewhat unsuccessful effort to raise funds for a Confederate veterans’ home. The comments of the newspaper were not wholly unfriendly, but something in their tone stirred Mr. Grady’s blood. “I will show them,” he said, “what can be done in Georgia,” and with that he turned to his stenographer and dictated a double-leaded editorial that stirred the State from one end to the other. He followed it up the next day, and immediately subscriptions began to flow in. He never suffered interest in the project to flag until sufficient funds for a comfortable home for the Confederate veterans had been raised.
Previously, he had organized a movement for putting up a building for the Young Men’s Christian Association, and that building now stands a monument to his earnestness and unselfishness. Years ago, shortly after he came to Atlanta, he took hold of the Young Men’s Library, which was in a languishing condition, and put it on its feet. It was hard work, for he was comparatively unknown then. Among other things, he organized a lecture course for the benefit of the library, and he brought some distinguished lecturers to Atlanta— among others the late S. S. Cox. Mr. Cox telegraphed from New York that he would come to Atlanta, and also the subject of the lecture, so that it could be properly advertised. The telegram said that the title of the lecture was “Just Human,” and large posters, bearing that title, were placed on the bill-boards and distributed around town. As Mr Grady said, “the town broke into a profuse perspiration of placards bearing the strange device, while wrinkles gathered on the brow of the public intellect and knotted themselves hopelessly as it pondered over what might be the elucidation of such a strangely-named subject. At last,” Mr. Grady goes on to say, “the lecturer came, and a pleasant little gentleman he was, who beguiled the walk to the hotel with the airiest of jokes and the brightest of comment. At length, when he had registered his name in the untutored chirography of the
great, he took me to one side, and asked in an undertone what those placards meant.”
“That,” I replied, looking at him in astonishment, “is the subject of your lecture.”
“‘My lecture!’ he shrieked, ‘whose lecture? What lecture? My subject! Whose subject? Why, sir,’ said he, trying to control himself, ‘my subject is ‘Irish Humor,’ while this is ‘Just Human,’ and he put on his spectacles and glared into space as if he were determined to wring from that source some solution of this cruel joke.”
By an error of transmission, “Irish Humor” had become “Just Human.” Mr. Grady does not relate the sequel, but what followed was as characteristic of him as anything in his unique career
“Well,” said he, turning to Mr. Cox, his bright eyes full of laughter, “you stick to your subject, and I’ll take this ready-made one; you lecture on ‘Irish Humor’ and I’ll lecture on ‘Just Human.’”
And he did. He took the telegraphic error for a subject, and delivered in Atlanta one of the most beautiful lectures ever heard here. There was humor in it and laughter, but he handled his theme with such grace and tenderness that the vast audience that sat entranced under his magnetic oratory went home in tears.
The lecture course that Mr. Grady instituted was never followed up, although it was a successful one. It was his way, when he had organized an enterprise and placed it on its feet, to turn his attention to something else. Sometimes his successors were equal to the emergency, and sometimes they were not. The Young Men’s Library has been in good hands, and it is what may be termed a successful institution, but it is not what it was when Mr. Grady was booming the town in its behalf. When he put his hand to any enterprise or to any movement the effect seemed to be magical. It was not his personal influence, for there were some enterprises beyond the range of that, that responded promptly to his touch. It was not his enthusiasm, for there have been thousands of men quite as enthusiastic. Was it his methods? Perhaps the secret lies hidden there; but I have often thought, while witnessing the results he brought about, that he had at
his command some new element, or quality, or gift not vouchsafed to other men. Whatever it was, he employed it only for the good of his city, his State, his section, and his country. His patriotism was as prominent and as permanent as his unselfishness. His public spirit was unbounded, and, above all things, restless and eager.
I have mentioned only a few of the more important enterprises in Atlanta that owe their success to Mr. Grady. He was identified with every public movement that took shape in Atlanta, and the people were always sure that his interest and his influence were on the side of honesty and justice. But his energies took a wider range. He was the very embodiment of the spirit that he aptly named “the New South,”—the New South that, reverently remembering and emulating the virtues of the old, and striving to forget the bitterness of the past, turns its face to the future and seeks to adapt itself to the conditions with which an unsuccessful struggle has environed it, and to turn them to its profit. Of the New South Mr. Grady was the prophet, if not the pioneer. He was never tired of preaching about the rehabilitation of his section. Much of the marvelous development that has taken place in the South during the past ten years has been due to his eager and persistent efforts to call the attention of the world to her vast resources. In his newspaper, in his speeches, in his contributions to Northern periodicals, this was his theme. No industry was too small to command his attention and his aid, and none were larger than his expectations. His was the pen that first drew attention to the iron fields of Alabama, and to the wonderful marble beds and mineral wealth of Georgia. Other writers had preceded him, perhaps, but it is due to his unique methods of advertising that the material resources of the two States are in their present stage of development. He had no individual interest in the development of the material wealth of the South. During the past ten years there was not a day when he was alive that he could not have made thousands of dollars by placing his pen at the disposal of men interested in speculative schemes. He had hundreds of opportunities to write himself rich, but he never fell below the high level of unselfishness that marked his career as boy and man.
There was no limit to his interest in Southern development. The development of the hidden wealth of the hills and valleys, while it appealed strongly to an imagination that had its practical and common-sense side, but not more strongly than the desperate struggle of the farmers of the South in their efforts to recover from the disastrous results of the war while facing new problems of labor and conditions wholly strange. Mr. Grady gave them the encouragement of his voice and pen, striving to teach them the lessons of hope and patience. He was something more than an optimist. He was the embodiment, the very essence, as it seemed— of that smiling faith in the future that brings happiness and contentment, and he had the faculty of imparting his faith to other people. For him the sun was always shining, and he tried to make it shine for other men. At one period, when the farmers of Georgia seemed to be in despair, and while there was a notable movement from this State to Georgia, Mr. Grady caused the correspondents of the Constitution to make an investigation into the agricultural situation in Georgia. The result was highly gratifying in every respect. The correspondents did their work well, as, indeed, they could hardly fail to do under the instructions of Mr. Grady. The farmers who had been despondent took heart, and from that time to the present there has been a steady improvement in the status of agriculture in Georgia.
It would be difficult to describe or to give an adequate idea of the work—remarkable in its extent as well as in its character—that Mr. Grady did for Georgia and for the South. It was his keen and hopeful eyes that first saw the fortunes that were to be made in Florida oranges. He wrote for the Constitution in 1877 a series of glowing letters that were full of predictions and figures based on them. The matter was so new at that time, and Mr. Grady’s predictions and estimates seemed to be so extravagant, that some of the editors, irritated by his optimism, as well as by his success as a journalist, alluded to his figures as “Grady’s facts,” and this expression had quite a vogue, even among those who were not unfriendly.
Nevertheless there is not a prediction to be found in Mr. Grady’s Florida letters that has not been fulfilled, and his figures appear to be
tame enough when compared with the real results that have been brought about by the orange-growers. Long afterwards he alluded publicly to “Grady’s facts,” accepted its application, and said he was proud that his facts always turned out to be facts.
It would be impossible to enumerate the practical subjects with which Mr. Grady dealt in the Constitution. In the editorial rooms he was continually suggesting the exhaustive treatment of some matter of real public interest, and in the majority of instances, after making the suggestion to one of his writers, he would treat the subject himself in his own inimitable style. His pleasure trips were often itineraries in behalf of the section he was visiting. He went on a pleasure trip to Southern Georgia on one occasion, and here are the headlines of a few of the letters he sent back: “Berries and Politics,” “The Savings of the Georgia Farmers,” “The Largest Strawberry Farm in the State,” “A Wandering Bee, and How it Made the LeConte Pear,” “The Turpentine Industries.” All these are suggestive. Each letter bore some definite relation to the development of the resources of the State.
To Mr Grady, more than to any other man, is due the development of the truck gardens and watermelon farms of southern and southwest Georgia. When he advised in the Constitution the planting of watermelons for shipment to the North, the proposition was hooted at by some of the rival editors, but he “boomed” the business, as the phrase is, and to-day the watermelon business is an established industry, and thousands of farmers are making money during what would otherwise be a dull season of the year. And so with hundreds of other things. His suggestions were always practicable, though they were sometimes so unique as to invite the criticism of the thoughtless, and they were always for the benefit of others—for the benefit of the people. How few men, even though they live to a ripe old age, leave behind them such a record of usefulness and unselfish devotion as that of this man, who died before his prime!
Mr. Grady’s editorial methods were as unique as all his other methods. They can be described, but they cannot be explained. He had an instinctive knowledge of news in its embryonic state; he seemed to know just where and when a sensation or a startling piece of information would develop itself, and he was always ready for it. Sometimes it seemed to grow and develop under his hands, and his insight and information were such that what appeared to be an ordinary news item would suddenly become, under his manipulation and interpretation, of the first importance. It was this faculty that enabled him to make the Constitution one of the leading journals of the country in its method of gathering and treating the news.
Mr. Grady was not as fond of the editorial page as might be supposed. Editorials were very well in their way—capital in an emergency—admirable when a nail was to be clinched, so to speak —but most important of all to his mind was the news and the treatment of it. The whirl of events was never too rapid for him. The most startling developments, the most unexpected happenings, always found him ready to deal with them instantly and in just the right way.
He magnified the office of reporting, and he had a great fancy for it himself. There are hundreds of instances where he voluntarily assumed the duties of a reporter after he became managing editor. A case in point is the work he did on the occasion of the Charleston earthquake. The morning after that catastrophe he was on his way to Charleston. He took a reporter with him, but he preferred to do most of the work. His graphic descriptions of the disaster in all its phases —his picturesque grouping of all the details—were the perfection of reporting, and were copied all over the country. The reporter who accompanied Mr. Grady had a wonderful tale to tell on his return. To the people of that desolate town, the young Georgian seemed to carry light and hope. Hundreds of citizens were encamped on the streets. Mr. Grady visited these camps, and his sympathetic humor
brought a smile to many a sad face. He went from house to house, and from encampment to encampment, wrote two or three columns of telegraphic matter on his knee, went to his room in the hotel in the early hours of morning, fell on the bed with his clothes on, and in a moment was sound asleep. The reporter never knew the amount of work Mr. Grady had done until he saw it spread out in the columns of the Constitution. Working at high-pressure there was hardly a limit to the amount of copy Mr. Grady could produce in a given time, and it sometimes happened that he dictated an editorial to his stenographer while writing a news article.
He did a good deal of his more leisurely newspaper work at home, with his wife and children around him. He never wrote on a table or desk, but used a lapboard or a pad, leaning back in his chair with his feet as high as his head. His house was always a centre of attraction, and when visitors came in Mrs. Grady used to tell them that they needn’t mind Henry. The only thing that disturbed him on such occasions was when the people in the room conversed in a tone so low that he failed to hear what they were saying. When this happened he would look up from his writing with a quick “What’s that?” This often happened in the editorial rooms, and he would frequently write while taking part in a conversation, never losing the thread of his article or of the talk.
As I have said, he reserved his editorials for occasions or emergencies, and it was then that his luminous style showed at its best. He employed always the apt phrase; he was, in fact a phrasebuilder. His gift of expression was something marvelous, and there was something melodious and fluent about his more deliberate editorials that suggested the movement of verse. I was reading awhile ago his editorial appealing to the people of Atlanta on the cold Christmas morning which has already been alluded to in this sketch. It is short—not longer than the pencil with which he wrote it, but there is that about it calculated to stir the blood, even now. Above any other man I have ever known Mr. Grady possessed the faculty of imparting his personal magnetism to cold type; and even such a statement as this is an inadequate explanation of the swift and powerful effect that his writings had on the public mind.
He had a keen eye for what, in a general way, may be called climaxes. Thus he was content to see the daily Constitution run soberly and sedately along during the week if it developed into a great paper on Sunday. He did more editorial work for the Sunday paper than for any other issue, and bent all his energies toward making an impression on that day. There was nothing about the details of the paper that he did not thoroughly understand. He knew more about the effects of type combinations than the printers did; he knew as much about the business department as the business manager; and he could secure more advertisements in three hours than his advertising clerks could solicit in a week. It used to be said of him that he lacked the business faculty. I suppose the remark was based on the fact that, in the midst of all the tremendous booms he stirred up, and the enterprises he fostered, he remained comparatively poor. I think he purposely neglected the opportunities for private gain that were offered him. There can be no more doubt of his business qualification than there can be of the fact that he neglected opportunities for private gain; but his business faculties were given to the service of the public—witness his faultless management of two of the greatest expositions ever held in the South. Had he served his own interests one-half as earnestly as he served those of the people, he would have been a millionaire. As it was, he died comparatively poor.
Mr. Grady took great pride in the Weekly Constitution, and that paper stands to-day a monument to his business faculty and to his wonderful methods of management. When Mr Grady took hold of the weekly edition, it had about seven thousand subscribers, and his partners thought that the field would be covered when the list reached ten thousand. To-day the list of subscribers is not far below two hundred thousand, and is larger than that of the weekly edition of any other American newspaper. Just how this result has been brought about it is impossible to say. His methods were not mysterious, perhaps, but they did not lie on the surface. The weekly editions of newspapers that have reached large circulations depend on some specialty—as, for instance, the Detroit Free Press with the popular sketches of M. Quad, and the Toledo Blade, with the rancorous, but still popular, letters of Petroleum V. Nasby. The
Weekly Constitution has never depended on such things. It has had, and still has, the letters of Bill Arp, of Sarge Wier, and of Betsey Hamilton, homely humorists all, but Mr. Grady took great pains never to magnify these things into specialties. Contributions that his assistants thought would do for the weekly, Mr. Grady would cut out relentlessly.
It sometimes happened that subscribers would begin to fall off. Then Mr. Grady would send for the manager of the weekly department, and proceed to caucus with him, as the young men around the office termed the conference. During the next few days there would be a great stir in the weekly department, and in the course of a fortnight the list of subscribers would begin to grow again. Once, when talking about the weekly, Mr. Grady remarked in a jocular way that when subscriptions began to flow in at the rate of two thousand a day, he wanted to die. Singularly enough, when he was returning from Boston, having been seized with the sickness that was so soon to carry him off, the business manager telegraphed him that more than two thousand subscribers had been received the day before.
In the midst of the manifold duties and responsibilities that he had cheerfully taken on his shoulders, there came to Mr. Grady an ardent desire to aid in the reconciliation of the North and South, and to bring about a better understanding between them. This desire rapidly grew into a fixed and solemn purpose. His first opportunity was an invitation to the banquet of the New England Society, which he accepted with great hesitation. The wonderful effect of his speech at that banquet, and the tremendous response of applause and approval that came to him from all parts of the country, assured him that he had touched the key-note of the situation, and he knew then that his real mission was that of Pacificator. There was a change in him from that time forth, though it was a change visible only to friendly and watchful eyes. He put away something of his boyishness, and became, as it seemed, a trifle more thoughtful. His purpose developed into a mission, and grew in his mind, and shone in his eyes, and remained with him day and night. He made many speeches after that, frequently in little out-of-the-way country places,
but all of them had a national significance and national bearing. He was preaching the sentiments of harmony, fraternity, and good will to the South as well as to the North.
He prepared his Boston speech with great care, not merely to perfect its form, but to make it worthy of the great cause he had at heart, and in its preparation he departed widely from his usual methods of composition. He sent his servants away, locked himself in Mrs. Grady’s room, and would not tolerate interruptions from any source. His memory was so prodigious that whatever he wrote was fixed in his mind, so that when he had once written out a speech, he needed the manuscript no more. Those who were with him say that he did not confine himself to the printed text of the Boston speech, but made little excursions suggested by his surroundings. Nevertheless, that speech, as it stands, reaches the high-water mark of modern oratory. It was his last, as it was his best, contribution to the higher politics of the country—the politics that are above partisanry and self-seeking.
From Boston Mr. Grady came home to die. It was known that he was critically ill, but his own life had been so hopeful and so bright, that when the announcement of his death was made the people of Atlanta were paralyzed, and the whole country shocked. It was a catastrophe so sudden and so far-reaching that even sorrow stood dumb for a while. The effects of such a calamity were greater than sorrow could conceive or affection contemplate. Men who had only a passing acquaintance with him wept when they heard of his death. Laboring men spoke of him with trembling lips and tearful eyes, and working-women went to their tasks in the morning crying bitterly. Never again will there come to Atlanta a calamity that shall so profoundly touch the hearts of the people—that shall so encompass the town with the spirit of mourning.
I feel that I have been unable, in this hastily written sketch, to do justice to the memory of this remarkable man. I have found it impossible to describe his marvelous gifts, his wonderful versatility, or the genius that set him apart from other men. The new generations that arise will bring with them men who will be fitted to meet the emergencies that may arise, men fitted to rule and capable of touching the popular heart; but no generation will ever produce a genius so versatile, a nature so rare and so sweet, a character so perfect and beautiful, a heart so unselfish, and a mind of such power and vigor, as those that combined to form the unique personality of Henry W Grady Never again, it is to be feared, will the South have such a wise and devoted leader, or sectional unity so brilliant a champion, or the country so ardent a lover, or humanity so unselfish a friend, or the cause of the people so eloquent an advocate.
MEMORIAL OF HENRY W. GRADY.
P M J. V , R N Y S S .
HENRY WOODFIN GRADY was born in Athens, Georgia, May 17, 1851, and died in Atlanta, Georgia, December 23, 1889.
His father, William S. Grady, was a native of North Carolina, and lived in that State until about the year 1846, when he moved to Athens, Georgia. He was a man of vigorous energy, sterling integrity, and great independence of character. He was not literary by profession, but devoted himself to mercantile pursuits, and accumulated what was in those days considered a handsome fortune. Soon after moving to Georgia to live, he married Miss Gartrell, a woman of rare strength of character and deep religious nature. Their married life was sanctified by love of God, and made happy by a consistent devotion to each other.
They had three children, Henry Woodfin, William S., Jr., and Martha. Henry Grady’s father was an early volunteer in the Confederate Army. He organized and equipped a company, of which he was unanimously elected captain, and went at once to Virginia, where he continued in active service until he lost his life in one of the battles before Petersburg. During his career as a soldier he bore himself with such conspicuous valor, that he was accorded the rare distinction of promotion on the field for gallantry.
He fought in defense of his convictions, and fell “a martyr for conscience’ sake.”
His widow, bereft of her helpmate, faced alone the grave responsibility of rearing her three young children.
She led them in the ways of righteousness and truth, and always sweetened their lives with the tenderness of indulgence, and the beauty of devotion. Two of them still live to call her blessed.
If memorials were meant only for the day and generation in which they are written, who would venture upon the task of preparing one to Henry W. Grady? His death occasioned such wide grief, and induced such unprecedented demonstrations of sorrow, that nothing can be commensurate with those impressive evidences of the unrivaled place he held in the homage of his countrymen.
No written memorial can indicate the strong hold he had upon the Southern people, nor portray that peerless personality which gave him his marvelous power among men. He had a matchless grace of soul that made him an unfailing winner of hearts. His translucent mind pulsated with the light of truth and beautified all thought. He grew flowers in the garden of his heart and sweetened the world with the perfume of his spirit. His endowments were so superior, and his purposes so unselfish, that he seemed to combine all the best elements of genius, and live under the influence of Divine inspiration.
As both a writer and a speaker, he was phenomenally gifted. There was no limit, either to the power or witchery of his pen. In his masterful hand, it was as he chose, either the mighty instrument which Richelieu described, or the light wand of a poet striking off the melody of song, though not to the music of rhyme. In writing a political editorial, or an article on the industrial development of the South, or anything else to which he was moved by an inspiring sense of patriotism or conviction of duty, he was logical, aggressive, and unanswerable. When building an air-castle over the framework of his fancy, or when pouring out his soul in some romantic dream, or when sounding the depth of human feeling by an appeal for Charity’s sake, his command of language was as boundless as the realm of thought, his ideas as beautiful as pictures in the sky, and his pathos
as deep as the well of tears. As an orator, he had no equal in the South. He literally mastered his audience regardless of their character, chaining them to the train of his thought and carrying them captive to conviction. He moved upon their souls like the Divine Spirit upon the waters, either lashing them into storms of enthusiasm, or stilling them into the restful quiet of sympathy. He was like no other man—he was a veritable magician. He could invest the most trifling thing with proportions of importance not at all its own. He could transform a homely thought into an expression of beauty beneath his wondrous touch. From earliest childhood he possessed that indefinable quality which compels hero-worship.
In the untimely ending of his brilliant and useful career—an ending too sudden to be called less than tragic—there came an affliction as broad as the land he loved, and a grief well-nigh universal. Atlanta lamented her foremost citizen; Georgia mourned her peerless son; the New South agonized over the fall of her intrepid leader; and the heart of the nation was athrob with sorrow when the announcement went forth—“Henry W. Grady is dead.”
The power of his personality, the vital force of his energy, and the scope of his genius, had always precluded the thought that death could touch him, and hence, when he fell a victim to the dread destroyer, there was a terrible shock felt, and sorrow rolled like a tempest over the souls of the Southern people.
The swift race he ran, and the lofty heights he attained, harmonized well with God’s munificent endowment of him. In every field that he labored, his achievements were so wonderful, that a faithful account of his career sounds more like the extravagance of eulogy, than like a record of truth. Of his very early boyhood no account is essential to the purposes of this sketch. It is unnecessary to give any details of him prior to the time when he was a student in the University of Georgia, at Athens. From that institution he was graduated in 1868.
During his college days, he was a boy of bounding spirit, who, by an inexplicable power over his associates, made for himself an unchallenged leadership in all things with which he concerned
himself. He was not a close student. He never studied his text-books more than was necessary to guarantee his rising from class to class, and to finally secure his diploma. He had no fondness for any department of learning except belles-lettres. In that branch of study he stood well, simply because it was to his liking. The sciences, especially mathematics, were really distasteful to him. He was an omnivorous reader. Every character of Dickens was as familiar to him as a personal friend. That great novelist was his favorite author. He read widely of history, and had a great memory for dates and events. He reveled in poetry as a pastime, but never found anything that delighted him more than “Lucile.” He learned that love-song literally by heart.
While at college his best intellectual efforts were made in his literary and debating society. He aspired to be anniversarian of his society, and his election seemed a foregone conclusion. He was, however, over-confident of success in the last days of the canvass, and when the election came off was beaten by one vote. This was his first disappointment, and went hard with him. He could not bring himself to understand how anything toward the accomplishment of which he had bent his energy could fail. His defeat proved a blessing in disguise, for the following year a place of higher honor, namely that of “commencement orator” was instituted at the University, and to that he was elected by acclamation. This was the year of his graduation, and the speech he made was the sensation of commencement. His subject was “Castles in Air,” and in the treatment of his poetic theme he reveled in that wonderful power of word painting for which he afterwards became so famous. Even in those early days, he wrote and spoke with a fluency of expression, and brilliancy of fancy, that were incomparable.
In all the relations of college life he was universally popular. He had a real genius for putting himself en rapport with all sorts and conditions of men. His sympathy was quick-flowing and kind. Any sight or story of suffering would touch his heart and make the tears come. His generosity, like a great river, ran in ceaseless flow and broadening course toward the wide ocean of humanity. He lived in the realization of its being “more blessed to give than to receive.” He
never stopped to consider the worthiness of an object, but insisted that a man was entitled to some form of selfishness, and said his was the self-indulgence which he experienced in giving.
There was an old woman in Athens, who was a typical professional beggar. She wore out everybody’s charity except Grady’s. He never tired helping her. One day he said, just after giving her some money, “I do hope old Jane will not die as long as I live in Athens. If she does, my most unfailing privilege of charity will be cut off.” A princely liberality marked everything he did. His name never reduced the average of a subscription list, but eight times out of ten it was down for the largest amount.
By his marked individuality of character, and evidences of genius, even as a boy he impressed himself upon all those with whom he came in contact.
Immediately after his graduation at Athens, he went to the University of Virginia, not so much with a determination to broaden his scholastic attainments, as with the idea that in that famous institution he would be inspired to a higher cultivation of his inborn eloquence. From the day he entered the University of Virginia, he had only one ambition, and that was to be “society orator.” He made such a profound impression in the Washington Society that his right to the honor he craved was scarcely disputed. In the public debates, he swept all competitors before him. About two weeks before the Society’s election of its orator, he had routed every other aspirant from the field, and it seemed he would be unanimously chosen. However, when election day came, that same over-confidence which cost him defeat at Athens lost him victory at Charlottesville. This disappointment nearly broke his heart. He came back home crestfallen and dispirited, and but for the wonderful buoyancy of his nature, he might have succumbed permanently to the severe blow which had been struck at his youthful aspirations and hopes.
It was not long after his return to Georgia before he determined to make journalism his life-work. At once he began writing newspaper letters on all sorts of subjects, trusting to his genius to give interest to purely fanciful topics, which had not the slightest flavor of news.
Having thus felt his way out into the field of his adoption, he soon went regularly into newspaper business.
Just about this time, and before he had attained his majority, he married Miss Julia King, of Athens. She was the first sweetheart of his boyhood, and kept that hallowed place always. Her beauty and grace of person, united to her charms of character, made her the queen of his life and the idol of his love. She, with two children (a boy and girl), survive him.
In his domestic life he was tender and indulgent to his family, and generously hospitable to his friends. The very best side of him was always turned toward his hearthstone, and there he dispensed the richest treasures of his soul. His home was his castle, and in it his friends were always made happy by the benediction of his welcome.
Soon after marriage he moved to Rome, Georgia, and established himself in the joint ownership, and editorial management of the Rome Commercial, which paper, instead of prospering, was soon enveloped in bankruptcy, costing Mr. Grady many thousands of dollars. Shortly after this he moved to Atlanta, and formed a partnership with Col. Robert Alliston in founding the Atlanta Herald. The conduct of that paper was a revelation in Georgia journalism. Grady and Alliston combined probably more genius than any two men who have ever owned a paper together in that State. They made the columns of the Herald luminous. They also put into it more push and enterprise than had ever been known in that section. They sacrificed everything to daily triumph, regardless of cost or consequences. They went so far as to charter an engine in order that they might put their morning edition in Macon, Georgia, by breakfast time. This was a feat never before dreamed of in Georgia. They accomplished the unprecedented undertaking, but in doing that, and other things of unwarranted extravagance, it was not long before the Atlanta Herald went “lock, stock and barrel,” into the wide-open arms of the Sheriff. In this venture Mr. Grady not only sunk all of his personal fortune which remained after the Rome wreck, but involved himself considerably in debt. Thus at twenty-three years of age, he was a victim to disappointment in the only two pronounced ambitions
